*Note: As per the performance eligibility requirements laid out here, this production is not up for HRACT Award consideration.*

“Nolan’s Wake”, playing as part of the Curtain Up! New Play Series at Zeiders American Dream Theater, begins with a familiar scenario – a family showing up at a house they’ve rented, with immediate drama over who gets the best bedroom.  Colleen has paid for the house – so you’d think she might get the best room.  Robert (Colleen’s brother) and his wife Amy might be entitled to it as the only couple at the house.  But of course, it’s the third sibling – Mary, the one with no strong claim to the room – who somehow ends up with it. 

A fitting start for a show whose biggest strength is its ability to create dialogue and tension that feels right out of your own Thanksgiving dinner table conversation (granted, with much larger problems and bigger secrets than most of our families can boast of).  You’ll be able to see yourself (and your familial allies and adversaries) in the characters.  Colleen (played by Laura Nedvin) is the one who has her life together (at least financially), and feels, as the competent sibling who stayed near home, like she has done more than her share of the heavy lifting.  Nedvin is excellent in the role, nailing the body language, with a slight turn of the head here, and a nearly imperceptible eye roll there. 

Meanwhile, Mike Burnette’s Robert is the youngest of the three, and has moved south, away from home, where he married Amy.  Robert is attempting to put up boundaries between his childhood family and the new one he is creating – and figuring out why is one of the key cogs to the plot.  Burnette has the timing of his conversations down to a ‘t’, adding little pauses at times and quickening the pace at others to make conversations feel natural.  Amy, played by Cassandra Dean, is fighting in the other direction from her husband, as she tries to make a stronger connection with the Nolan family (a tough nut to crack).  Dean gets the energy of someone trying to make a good impression just right as she attempts to keep the family together in this tough time. 

Oh yeah – forgot to tell you – the impetus for this family getting together?  The three siblings’ step-mom just passed away. 

Further complicating matters is that the deceased, Rose, lived with and was the main caretaker of sibling number three, Mary, who is not clinically diagnosed but, it is made clear, has some sort of mental handicap that keeps her from being a fully functioning member of society.  Rona Hyman plays Mary and delivers her lines with a straightforward conviction that will be familiar to anyone with the pleasure of having a mentally handi-capable person in their life.  Mary also happens to be the lynchpin who, at first literally (through a well put together stretch of physical comedy around an unraveling ball of yarn, with credit to the blocking from director Katherine Hammond), and then metaphorically, pulls the thread that unravels this family’s tangled web of secrets. 

And further further complicating matters – Rose had one other daughter from her first marriage – Grace.  Played by the vibrant Melissa Vázquez Cartwright, Grace is clearly reluctant to participate in this gathering of a group of people she doesn’t seem to consider family (a feeling that seems mutual). 

Throw a shockingly interactive B&B owner into the mix in doomsday planner Massey (played in highly entertaining fashion by local stage stalwart Brian Cebrian), and you’ve got yourself quite the powder keg of drama that writer Patti Veconi has created for us.  Veconi’s style of dialogue is spot-on, with the appropriate ebb and flow, while keeping the audience interested.  It really feels like you are a fly on the wall as someone else’s family throws their dirty laundry absolutely everywhere.  And since you can sort of sympathize with each member of the family, your allegiances will change throughout the show, as different characters keep choosing surprising and dangerous confidantes amongst the others to spill their guts to. 

As for me?  My allegiance will always be with the cat who takes the stage and steals the show with hilarious and well-timed “meows” both on and off stage.  And (minor spoiler) – so you don’t spend the whole show worried – that cat gets perhaps the happiest ending of any member of the cast.  Love to see the kitty respect in the theater.